Chpt 8: Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory

Time is a fundamental dimension of our daily lives in the modern world. After all, how would we know when to turn up for a meeting, dial into a Zoom call; when to meet a friend for lunch or take the chicken from the oven? Yes, that is hyperbole, but I wanted to briefly discuss the development of ‘time’ as both a social and technological construct.

Have you got a minute?

The Ancient Tree of Temporal Perception

Our ancestors were deeply connected to the living world around them. From the passing of the seasons, the sun’s rising and setting, to the moon’s phases. They were wholly connected to the passing of time as an absolute necessity for survival. Primitive societies relied on these cyclical patterns for crop planting, animal driving, and navigation. It also played a role in the development of religion and mythology with the planets and stars themselves achieving godhood.

Around 1800 BCE the Babylonians developed a sophisticated lunar calendar. They were a civilisation with an advanced understanding of mathematics, and astronomy, and demonstrated an intense need for organised timekeeping. Having an advanced lunar calendar allowed them to predict important agricultural milestones; such as planting and harvesting, and allowed them to take full advantage of the fertile lands around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

In addition, central to their spiritual dogma was the veneration of the pantheon of gods and goddesses. The moon held a special place as it was associated with divinity, wisdom and fertility. This lunar calendar tied together agriculture, spirituality and architecture, with many of their temples and ziggurats oriented to celestial alignments indicating they had a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of the earth and celestial bodies.

This was a culture, among many other ancients, that lived in harmony with the celestial cycles, relied on it for their prosperity, and venerated it in their culture and architecture.

Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.

Rabindranath Tagore

From Sundials to Swatch

I discussed in Chpt 7: Prosthetic Conscience how The Renaissance was a pivotal time in modern history. It was also pivotal in the development of timekeeping technology. Innovations like sundials, water clocks, and candle clocks were slowly superseded by mechanical timepieces. These were crude and inaccurate initially, but the development of accurate timekeeping allowed for dense urbanisation, navigation of the globe, and became vital for coordinating our economic and social activities. The mechanical clock’s influence was marked, as it shifted our perception of time away from the ebb and flow of natural precession, to a regimented and human-focused one.

This standardisation of time, along with the shift from agriculture during the Industrial Revolution, allowed human beings to pivot and maximalise that thing most precious to us; efficiency. Factories required synchronisation of their schedules to maximise efficiency and this led to the adoption of standardised time. The railway system was another advancement that benefited from coordinated schedules across the rail network. Other marvels such as the telegraph and telephone facilitated instantaneous communication, connecting people across vast distances and further shaping a centralised temporal consciousness.

How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?

Dr. Seuss

Digital Temporal Disruption

With the advent of digital technology (superseding analogue) in the late 20th century we again revolutionised timekeeping. Atomic clocks, measuring time through vibrating atoms, are so accurate they lose only a few billionths of a second per day. These clocks provide incredible accuracy and enabled the development of GPS, the furthering of space exploration, and relativity testing, and are used in the search for Dark Matter and Dark Energy. These innovations not only enhance scientific research but seep into the background of everyday life, from communications networks to high-frequency trading algorithms used in financial networks.

With this advent, however, the human species has become controlled by the very thing we created. Every aspect of our lives now relies on some form of timekeeping that masks the precessional and subtly shifting timekeeping of nature itself.

Conclusion

As the digital age has progressed we have become immune, or at least ignorant of the passage of real time. As timekeeping evolved it has inadvertently disconnected a large part of humanity from the natural rhythms that we once relied upon. The ancients’ reliance on celestial precession, seasons, lunar cycles and the sun’s passage tied us intimately to the varied patterns of nature outside the cities and towns. Mechanical and digital clocks have fostered an artificial separation from our environment.

The relentless pursuit of productivity and efficiency has led to a disregard for natural cycles, disrupting sleep patterns and diminishing our connection to the greater world. We should indeed strive for a more harmonious balance with the world around us and re-connect with natures true timekeeping; the sun, the stars, the moon and the cycles of the land beneath us.

TLDR; Go outside, and touch grass.